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Fly into Heathrow or Gatwick

Departing from New York. I've heard if you could avoid Heathrow, Do So. Fly into/out of Gatwick instead. Am considering staying either in Mayfair or Westminster areas. Also thinking about flying into Edinburgh first for a few nights and departing from London. As you can see all in planning stages. Any suggestions would be helpful please.

Posted by
8889 posts

Gatwick is not significantly slower than Heathrow to get into central London. Either way you end up on the tube (or taxi - £££) to get to your final destination.
Flying into Edinburgh is also good if you are starting in Scotland. Edinburgh to London is 4½ by train, city centre to city centre, better option than flying.

Posted by
5467 posts

No particular reason to favour Gatwick over Heathrow - both have their own operational foibles from time to time. The areas you are considering are fairly equally accessible with Heathrow maybe having a slight edge if there is one. An open jaw is always preferable if you are starting and ending at different cities.

Posted by
6 posts

So to reiterate what you're saying is to go to London first then depart from Edinburgh to avoid the high departure taxes? We originally were planning on going to Edinburgh first.

Posted by
2878 posts

The high fee applies to flying OUT of any of these airports. If you connect in any of them and fly out , even the next day if is the next through connection, it does not apply- at least it did not when my son flew home from his semester in St Petersburg a couple years back, his plane from Russia was scheduled to arrive too late to connect to BA's last flight to PHL, so leaving the airport and flying the next afternoon did OT have this fee, however since we decided he could stay a couple nights with his friend in LSE, since he had to leave Heathrow anyway, the fee DID apply to his last leg since this was not continuous.

The way to avoid this excess departure tax is to fly home open jaw from somewhere else other than the UK, note that the fee is minimal on flights into Ireland or Europe..

Posted by
3897 posts

When I looked at booking my flight in and out of Gatwick last spring, I found it was more expensive than flying in and out of Heathrow.
Round trip at that time, from Washington D.C. to Heathrow, $949.
Round trip from Washington D.C. to Gatwick, $1,595.
A substantial savings to fly into Heathrow.
Better check the actual prices for the day and flights you want before you decide.

There so many options to get into Central London from both Gatwick & Heathrow, another good option is Stansted, lots of cheap bus and train options running into the city, check here for cheapest way to get to stansted. I think it can be quicker to get to Stansted as well. Let me know how you go!

Posted by
15022 posts

If your flight is ending at LHR, take LHR. I like LHR to fly into from SFO, well organised, easy to manage, WC before you get to Immigration/Border Control.